The Price of a Crown
by Blackpen Enaru
Summary: revised old story. first chapter is completely new. hades and persephone
1. Chapter 1

As I wandered through the eternal abode of an afterlife that had come too soon, I noticed that all of the spirits had the slightest white glow to them. Their bodies seemed solid but bathed in a most ethereal light that made them appear heavenly and beautiful. I looked down at my hands and saw that I too, carried the ever so subtle mark of the dead. However, I spied one lady in a distance who shone with no such aura. Rather, she looked most miserable as if she had been condemned to Tartarus. The dark circles under her eyes stood out in startling contrast to the unhealthy pallor of her skin. She looked worried and underfed, which was a curious condition indeed, for her beautiful black dress and ornate purple cloak was of the type that could only be worn by those who had never seen hardship. She listlessly directed the scurrying, official looking spirits in their tasks. I watched in awe as this woman told men what to do, and they did as they were told! Then Hades himself, who had overseen my judgment, appeared before her in a swish of robes darker than the night and frowned as he took in her state. He put a most affectionate hand on her slumped shoulder.

"You should get some rest," he said gently. "I shall not have you looking like this." He cupped a hand under her chin but she brusquely pulled away, meeting my eyes. I shrank away as she strode over to me with purpose. Hades followed at her heels.

"You, poor soul," she demanded. "What brings you to the underworld at an age so far from death?"

"A freezing winter," I stammered. I stared at my feet and wiped my clammy hands on my robes. She may have been spent, but she still bore a fearsome authority.

"And what was the cause of this cruel frost?" she hissed. Her question was directed at me but she was looking at Hades, who was looking very uncomfortable at this point.

"The fury of Demeter," I barely whispered.

"An avoidable matter," she told Hades coldly. "By forcing one wedding between us, you rob this from many others. To make matters worse, it was with possessiveness, not love or necessity, that you claimed me. You may have me, but I shall never accept you." As she stormed away, the god in question trotted after her, denying her accusations.

"Who is that grand lady?" I whispered, stopping one of the important looking ghosts rushing past me.

"Persephone, the royal fiancée," she replied impatiently. She shrugged off my hand and hurried off.

"Why would she be so unhappy with her lot?" I called after her. I received no answer. I could not understand why anyone would not consider themselves fortunate to have a husband so handsome and benevolent as Hades. I myself had been promised to a man twenty years my senior who was rumored to have a terrible temper.


	2. Chapter 2

**(chapter 1 is new, this chapter and the next are old)**

Hades gazed at me fondly as he carried me to our wedding bed for the first time. How I hated him for being so joyful when I was not! As soon as he put me down I scrambled out of reach.

"Persephone, please, I love you," he pleaded. He tried me pull me back into the bed, but I turned away from my captor, my husband only in name.

"What is love without respect? You force me through the rituals so that you have every right to have me should I refuse you. You call it love instead of lust so more shall have sympathy upon you."

"There was no other way. Your mother would have stopped us."

"If you had just asked I may have accepted in defiance of my mother. Instead you snatched me away as if I were but some flower to be plucked, an inanimate object of no consequence. By that you have shattered my trust forever."

"I shall shower you with jewels until your sorrows are forgotten."

"How I despise that women are so easily swayed with meaningless trinkets! I wish that women, instead of being walking showcases, instead of begging of their fathers and brothers the latest and gayest new bonnet, would ask of them their rights."

"This fire within you shall make you a fine queen."

"What authority do I have as queen if even a simple no goes unheeded."

"Just say the word and our marital chambers shall be exclusively yours."

"My struggles against your grasp should have been a clear enough word for you when you dragged me to this prison."

"It was your folly for having struggled, what lady would not want to be the queen of the underworld?"

"The arrogance!" I fumed. "If you truly believed that I was in no position to refuse you, you would not have felt the need to abduct me in such an uncivilized manner."

"I was convinced I would have to act in haste, by Zeus' suggestion. I had no doubt that you would consult your mother should I make a formal request, enabling her to keep you from me forever. It was my hope that you would learn to love me-"

"After you forced me to marry you so I would have no other choice. What meaning does love have if it is forced?"

"It is better this way! You were a mature butterfly, struggling to break out of the cocoon your mother wove around you. I could not bear to see the talents of this butterfly go to waste so I took the initiative. Your mother shall be spared the grief of knowing that you would have willingly left her side."

"Is the most just of the gods claiming that kidnap can ever be right?"

"If the benefits are greater than the costs and the ends justify the means."

"What exactly are the ends you were trying to achieve?"

"To attain for myself and my subjects a queen who will not shirk from her duties or faint from the terrors of Tartarus."

"You made an irreversible gamble to attain for yourself and your subjects a queen who could have turned out to be most unwilling or unqualified."

Hades stood from the bed and walked over to the window. "In my sense of overwhelming desperation and desire, my plan seemed more than logical at the time. Never in my life have I acted so rashly."

"Your rash actions were motivated by rash assumptions. First you assumed I was not capable of thinking for myself. Second you assumed that I would submit to you once you took away all my other options."

"If I could only change what I had done-,"

"It is pointless for you to regret your past actions after you have realized that they were fruitless."

"I truly saw no harm! Your father had given me his implicit permission…"

"And you failed to receive mine."

"It is not done that way!" he protested incredulously.

"I would have preferred you much more if you had. Furthermore, you underestimated and even ignored the greater ramifications of your actions. My mother inflicts her sorrowful wrath upon mortals that had nothing to do with this."

"Demeter does not have to curse the earth."

"Would you surrender me any other way? Did you expect any less from a most loving mother?"

The god of the underworld stared dejected at his feet. My heart almost reached out to him but my mind would never excuse him for his crime, even if he thought he had acted properly. I actually walked over to him and made him look at me.

"I resent you," I stated clearly. "I resent you not for depriving me of my past livelihood but for having used force against me when reason would have sufficed. I would have gladly traded my lowly status and vacant companions for a kingdom and wise advisors had you but offered."

My husband stepped away from me, looking hurt. "If I had made you an offer of marriage, you would have accepted it for the power it would have given you, not because you love me?"

"You are one to speak of love," I replied coldly. "How could you love me? You do not even know me. You had only seen me from a distance, believed what any inattentive observer would have believed in, my lack of ambition and my youthful innocence. You fell in love with a façade I maintain for the benefit of my mother, the way I look. You had no doubt in your mind that what you saw on the outside was what is on the inside. You prefer the weak and dainty lady that I am not."

"That is not true!" He desperately gripped my shoulders. "Everyone else saw a harmless maiden, I saw a strong spirit beneath the disguise. I was there when you cheeked Zeus, confronted Ares, learned from Athena… I fell in love with your wit, your irreverence, your thirst for knowledge; I contented myself with spying until I could bear our separation no longer."

"And yet you thought nothing of how I would bear our union."

"I had no reason to believe you would take it so poorly! I have never met anyone who did not wish to lay with me, at the very least…"

"I was cursed twice," I hissed bitterly. "First for being born a woman in a man's world. Second for never being able to die. My only escape is to hate you."

The god's shoulders slumped and his chiseled features looked miserable. In his vulnerable distress he was somehow appealing. It made him seem more human. I almost wished he would break down in tears, I do love to see a grown man cry. I mentally chastised myself for becoming aroused by his weakened state.

"Then forgive me for my foolish actions, I had no father to teach me how to act," he spoke regretfully.

I admit, had he not been so remarkably handsome and I not so deprived of what is only natural for women to do, I would not have given into my carnal instincts in spite of what I knew I should not do. Out of pure, savage lust I gripped the silk folds that layered his chest. He gave a start and stared at me in astonishment as I tore his shirt open. He responded by putting his hand at the back of my head and pushing my lips onto his. I moaned and he fumbled with the fastenings on my dress as we staggered over to the bed.

That night, we consummated our relationship. Not because I wanted to, but because I needed to. I needed to satiate a drive that was stronger than hunger or thirst.

Hades cuddled into me and smiled happily. "You love me," he insisted. "A woman would never make love to a man if she did not love him."

I scowled and rolled away. The god was so stubborn and naive. It annoyed me. "You do not love me," I retorted. "A man would never kidnap a woman if he _truly_ loved her."

"I was a fool," he declared. "I knew nothing of courting women but you have made an honest man out of me."

I ignored him and climbed out of the bed to get dressed. He watched me contentedly. However, I had much more on my mind. My mother. The goddess who had made my life so miserable by meaning well, never giving me one moment of freedom. I resent my mother for being so overbearing. Since our welfares are so closely linked, the only way I can hurt her is to hurt myself. However, I could not be so spiteful as to hurt her deliberately. She is my mother, after all. She had very good reason to keep me cloistered away, not that it had done much good. There is only so much a woman can do to maintain her honor, for the only thing that can prevent a woman's greatest fear is for a man to not commit it. She can turn herself into a horse, keep her daughter from the rest of the world, but the gods have a way of getting what they want at the expense of goddesses.

I clipped my hair up and left the room without another word, leaving Hades staring after me like a wounded puppy. I may seem cruel but I shall never really forgive my husband for what he did to me. I would have found him much harder to accept had his aura and countenance not pleased me greatly. His body and performance did not disappoint. Our marriage also allowed me to ascend to a throne, a seat I had coveted in my wildest fantasies. However, it did not change the fact that he thought it was right to just kidnap me. It reflected how much regard he had for me and women in general. To forgive him would be to condone a crime that anyone else would have been sent to Tartarus for committing. The queen of the underworld cannot show favoritism to those who are beautiful and charming.

I paced the grand halls, deep in thought. I was well aware of my mother's reaction to my disappearance. If my return is what shall make my mother relent, than return is what I must do. However, I was still unfamiliar with the workings of my underworld, I was not sure of how to escape. Several days passed until it was proven that I need not have worried myself with such matters.

A servant rushed into the throne room, where I was finding my queenly tasks very much to my liking. "Hermes, he is here!" he wailed. "He is here to collect our queen." Hades seemed somewhat collected until I made my sentiments clear.

"Vittoria! Vittoria!" I sang in the tongue of the nymphs I had met in Sicily.

My husband turned to me, crushed. "You wish to leave," he stated with anguish that rivaled that of the most faithful mourner.

"No," I replied. "You and I both have a duty to the living. Let me go."

"A true queen," he murmured. He took my hand and kissed it, but the sorrow in his eyes pained me so much that I wished to weep.

The souls cried and wailed, begging me to stay. "Our king is a good husband. He is handsome, rich, and powerful."

"He abducted me. Are you saying that these qualities excuse him from his crime?" I snapped. "What injustice is this! Your logic favors the elite."

Hermes held his hand out to me, to take me from the only place where my word was law. I had to choose between a mother who still treats me like a child and a husband who had thought nothing of taking me for himself.

I stood but did not budge otherwise. With a taste of freedom I could not bear to go back. Hades looked at me hopefully, thinking I may change my mind. However, I had a duty to the mortals who were suffering at my mother's hand. But technically, I was now responsible for the dead as well. If the king of the underworld could show such poor judgment as to carry off a bride the way he had, what would ensure him from not making a mistake in overseeing souls?

"A moment with my husband," I requested of Hermes. The messenger nodded, seeing that I would have accepted nothing but acquiescence. I led Hades to the Elysian Fields, where a giant pomegranate tree stood. "The Forbidden Fruit," he had dubbed it, for one bite would stain the white garments that the Elysians usually wore.

I plucked one of gourds and it split in half when I opened my hand. I transformed each half into a glass containing the best pomegranate wine. Hades' face lit up as he took one of the glasses. We intertwined our wrists and drank the juice of a fruit with no magical powers or hidden sorcery. It was the symbolism of the willingly shared fruit, not the fruit itself that would create an unbreakable bond between the king and queen of the underworld. This bond would have to be renewed at least once a year or we would both cease to exist. My absence would serve as his punishment. Even the gods should not be above justice.

"I knew you loved me," Hades said softly. He brushed a lock of my hair out of my face. Instead of ruining the moment, I finally decided to humor him.

"I do," I lied. How could I ever love a criminal? I wish I could, but cannot. This, I shall lament for all eternity.

The End

Quotes used…

"I wish that women, instead of being walking showcases, instead of begging of their fathers and brothers the latest and gayest new bonnet, would ask of them their rights."-Lucy Stone in her speech, Disappointment is the Lot of Women

"Vittoria! Vittoria!" Victory! Victory!- from Tosca, sung by the character Mario, a republican political prisoner in royalist Italy, upon hearing that Napoleon had won the Battle of Marengo.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer:

The plot is mine, the characters are not. This is NOT in any way related to The Narcissus and the Asphodel, my other Hades/Persephone fic.

A/N: After I posted this story I received a request that I include the following background information as an afterword. Here is the transcription:

Background information:

Even today, there are many parts of eastern Europe in which it is actually standard procedure for a man to kidnap and rape a woman as an act of marriage. One such victim actually found a little party waiting for her at her abductor's home. Fortunately, she was able to file for divorce. Other women just learn to deal with it, partly because of a lack of resources and partly because of the stigma of divorce.

Traditionally, this works because even nonconsensual sex makes a woman an undesirable bride (except to the man who did the raping, of course.) In the Middle East today, women who are kidnapped by guerillas are considered dead by their families because they might as well be. It is actually considered shameful to have a kidnapped female relative because no one will believe that she's still a virgin even if she manages to escape. Many women prefer actual death to this fate.

In the realm of fiction, one can conveniently justify a kidnapping by giving the man a strong enough reason and making the woman fall in love with him anyway. However, this does not happen in real life. The man is not always an attractive and desperate romantic. He usually acts out of a sense of claiming an object to which he is entitled. Many of us are fortunate to be distanced enough from this harsh reality to be able to romanticize it. We often forget that the issue of the child bride and forcible marriage is a very real concern in many parts of the world. There have been cases in which girls died from the physical trauma of intercourse with their considerably older husbands.

In blackpen's profile, and in the lecture featured in The Whole Truth, Elaina argues that the myth of Hades and Persephone may have been tweaked from the story of a marriage to one of a kidnapping to reinforce gender norms. This may be so, but it does not change the fact that few kidnappings that end in marriage have a happy ending. Many women adamantly insist that the accurate version of the myth did not include an abduction but it is the patriarchal version that they rewrite through a romanticized lens.

This story features a husband that is much more benevolent than most men would be in his position. This specific tale is not of my own, but regardless, I suppose I was fortunate. Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Persephone Regina

The Underworld, March 8th, 2006.


End file.
